k 



Tin: (Jhassks of Tknnksskk. 87 



complete possession of the soil, and the difticulty presented in ex- 

 terminating it. It is strictly a summer grass here, for its leaves 

 and stems are turned brown by the first frosts of autumn. It is 

 propai^ated by means of sets or rootinj^ stems. These are chopped 

 up with a cutting-knife, and then sown broadcast or dropped in 

 shallow furrows and lightly covered with earth. For holding steep 

 banks, or binding sandy soil subject to wash, this grass is especi- 

 ally valuable. It makes a fair lawn on soils where Kentucky blue- 

 grass cannot well be grown. 



35. SPARTINA Schreb. Gen. PI. 43. (17S9) 



Spikelets one-tlowered, strongly llattened laterally, sessile, and 

 closely imbricated in two rows along one side of a continuous 

 rachis, forming unilateral spikes which are scattered along a com- 

 mon axis; rachilla articulated below the empty glumes and not 

 produced beyond the floret. Glumes three, the first two empty, 

 keeled, acute, or bristle-pointed, unequal, the second as long as or 

 often exceeding the third or flowering glume. Stamens three, 

 styles elongated, filiform. Grain narrow, free within the glume 

 and palea. Coarse perennials with strong, creeping root stocks, 

 rigid culms, and long, tough leaves. 



wSpecies seven, extra tropical North and South America, and 

 along the coast of Europe and Africa; chiefly maritime, or in the 

 saline regions of the Great Plains. One species in Tennessee. 



I. Spartina cynosuroides Willd. Fresh-water-Cord-grass or Thatch- 

 grass. 



Plate XXIX. Figure 116. 



A stout, erect grass two to six feet high, with unbranched 

 smooth culms from strong creeping scaly root-stocks. Leaf-blade 

 one to four <:r six feet long, two to four lines wide, rough on the 

 margins, gradually tapering into long filiform tips. Spikes five to 

 twenty, spreading, racemose along the main axis. Empty glumes 

 iinec[ual, aculeolate-scabrous along the rigid keels, acute or the 

 second long-acuminate or short awn-pointed. Flowering glume 

 serrulate-scabrous along the keel or midrib, which abruptly termi- 

 nates just below the membranous apex. 



Along river banks and lake shores. July — August. West Ten- 

 nessee, (Gattinger.) 



This grass is said to make excellent hay for horses when cut 

 early. In regions where it grows abundantly, as along the Missis- 

 sippi bottoms, it has been employed in the manufacture of a coarse 

 kind of paper. It makes an excellent and durable thatch. 



36 CHLORIS Sw. Prodr. .^5. (17SS.) 



Spikelets one-flowered, awned, sessile in two rows along one side 

 of a continuous rachis, forming unilateral spikes, these usually sev- 

 eral together and digitate at the apex of the culm; rachilla articu- 



